Nigerian hotel owners stand by NTDC biometric decision

Hotel owners have come out backing the decision to install biometric workforce management systems in Nigeria’s hotels by the Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation (NTDC), Leadership reports.

“We have read with utter dismay in some National Dailies the position of a section of hotel workers under the aegis of National Union of Hotels and Personnel Services workers rejecting the laudable proposed biometric registration of hotel workers across the country by the Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation,” Onofiok Ekon, president of the Hotel Owners Forum said.

“As owners of hotels and hospitality establishments, we held several meetings with the NTDC as stakeholders under Hotel Owners and Hotel Forum of Abuja (HOFA) along with other stakeholders including Hotel Personnel Staff Employee Association (HOPSEA). Arising from these meetings, we collectively resolved that the biometric registration of hotel workers for security and staff-tracking purposes was not only urgently desirable, but also imperative.”

As reported previously in BiometricUpdate.com, the NTDC has introduced this mandate in a bid to curb criminal activities that take place in Nigeria’s hospitality industry.

“We wish to sound it loud and clear that as investors, we must protect our investments in which huge capital resources have been committed.  It is also on the basis of this that introducing biometric registration of workers would enable us curb and eventually stamp out rampant cases of fraud and criminal activities among the workers.  We cannot allow this ugly trend to continue unabated,” Ekon said.

Earlier this month a formal agreement on the workforce management biometric system to be used in the country’s hotels was set to be signed between the NTDC and Orbit Technologies and Investment Ltd.

“No foreign investor will come to Nigeria if there are no proper structures in all aspects of our national life and the tourism industry is one of the best and most sensitive industries in the world, hence we must do everything to protect the business and ensure security in the sector,” Director General of NTDC, Otunba Segun Runsewe said.

 

Article Topics

biometrics  |  identity verification  |  security  |  workforce management